Thanks for not being mad Ms. Jean ,i do get overeager sometimes and totally miss stuff. Love your sunny bottom birdie. I think those are great pictures! That's definitely the little bird i have been seeing all week. They are fun to watch because they are so quick. They are really hunting the grass for bugs i guess because they are constantly on the ground flashing their little yellow bottoms :-) Thanks so much for the pictures. Awww Brenda, you dont have the little fluffy vacuum cleaner wrens? They have so much personality and are so much fun to watch. They are so naughty too :-) i just love love love them! They follow all the other birds around and see what they are interested in and then they start liking it too. That of course makes the other birds mad so then the chase begins and it looks like a game of peek a boo because they are so small and fast the other birds can never catch them! LOL....If one bird likes a nest box then the little Carolina wren likes it. If somebody hides food then the little wren eats it. If somebody is guarding a certain tree then that is the tree the wren wants to be in. If somebody likes guarding a vine then thats the vine the wren wants to be in, and on and on and on. They are so mischievous and fun to watch , i laugh all the time at their antics. They are just so naughty and cute. Wish i could send you some but i only have one pair and i would surely miss them just to much. They even pick the bugs off of our cars and every bug off every hanging plant too. Yep they are just so wonderful. Little reddish fluff balls with big beaks and big voices! LOL....I hope you get some, Brenda they are wonderful. I saw a male Northern flicker today and i never realized how big they are, and their beaks are huge too! Lol...I never ever want to make one of them mad. So pretty though and very shy. I have always heard them but never saw them. Very exciting for me to finally put a real face (and beak) to that wild call they have. He hung on the very tip of a branch to pluck dogwood berries and the northern mocking bird that guards that tree didn't mess with him either. I dont blame him! LOL...Bonnie

Finding tomatoes that do well in the fall is a HUGE challenge and is so dependent on the summer and early autumn heat. Here are the criteria I use when trying to select tomatoes for fall: 1) Days to Maturity 2) Flavor 3) Ability to set flowers in heat In a way, you could say Days to Maturity is the MOST IMPORTANT factor and, technically, you would be right BUT it seems more important to me that the tomato be able to flower AND set fruit while the weather is still quite warm. Some tomatoes that have the "right" DTM still won't produce a good fall crop because many of their August flowers don't set fruit until the temperatures are more to their liking in mid to late September. And, there is no way to know in advance which tomatoes will or won't set fruit in heat, except perhaps based on the experience of other tomato growers in the hot regions of the country. Based on my experience in growing tomatoes in Oklahoma and Texas, I would say the best fall crops come from plants that: a) produce smaller rather than larger tomatoes b) produce on determinate plants set out earlier than what is usually advised for fall tomatoes c) are often advertised as "plants that produce all summer long", like Arkansas Traveler, Porter or Homestead 24 I generally choose for flavor, and tend to avoid all those tomatoes bred specifically to produce in the heat like Heat Wave or Sunmaster because they lack flavor. For fall cherry tomatoes I favor Sun Gold, Rosalita, and Black Cherry. For smaller slicing or salad tomatoes I usually go with Porter, Black Plum, Martino's Roma or Heidi. For larger tomatoes, I usually go with Purple Cherokee, Earl's Faux, Black Krim, Persimmon and Better Boy. Although Better Boy lacks the outstanding flavor of the heirlooms, it sometimes produces like gangbusters in spite of our extreme heat. Two of my best producing years with Better Boy, I had spring-planted plants produce tomatoes until the first frost in October, and had to pick dozens and dozens of green fruit the day before the freeze. Last year, Persimmon, Black Krim and Cherokee Purple set fruit in August and September despite our high temps that kept hitting 110 to 114 degrees. I thought that was amazing. This year I am going to try a lot of heirlooms for fall tomatoes, especially the heirloom winter storage types. I also am especially interested in seeing how Neves Azorean Red, Cherokee Chocolate, Champion and Little Brandywine do as a fall crop. In the past, Bucks County produced well all summer and into the fall but it appears to be "gone" this year, and there has been speculation in the tomato world that Little Brandywine is, in fact, Bucks County simply re-named. To get a fall tomato harvest, I do ALL of the following: In early- to mid-July, I cut back a few of the healthiest tomato plants to 12" to 18" tall and feed them a good balanced fertilizer. I keep them well-watered and they are usually flowering sometime in August and producing fruit in September In early to mid-June, I set out fall tomatoes that I have raised (in 4" pots) from seed outdoors in the heat. Raising them outside in the hot weather is hard, but it ensures they can handle the heat. I like to get these in the ground as early as possible in June. Setting them out later in June makes it more likely we'll get fruit before a freeze. I always set out a couple of fresh plants in VERY LARGE containers that can be pulled or pushed into the garage to avoid the first freeze and then brought back outside as soon as weather allows. If an early frost is threatening, I will cover two to four of my most productive fall plants with a blanket or heavy 6mm plastic. If you can protect them and get them through that first really cold weather spell of autumn, we often have 4 to 6 weeks of "Indian Summer" and will get a lot more ripe fruit during that time frame. Finally, if really cold weather is inevitable, I pull up the tomato plants that have a lot of fruit and hang them upside down in my tornado shelter or garage. A lot of those fruit will continue to ripen, sometimes for weeks! This is especially true for cherry tomatoes. Many years I pick a lot of green ones in the fall, but would rather have ripe ones than green ones (!) so anything that can be done to stretch the harvest is worth the time involved, I think. And, once in a blue moon the first fall freeze will be VERY, VERY LATE here....sometimes after Thanksgiving, and in a year like that, I have a huge fall harvest and am pretty much the happiest woman in Oklahoma!

You all are very inspiring - thank you. I keep working at making my yard wildlife friendly and you all remind me of why. Things are hopping here as babies are taught to forage at the bird feeders. The chickadees showed up yesterday - six (!) survived. It was a hoot. The downy woodpecker baby hasn't quite got the trick of the suet feeder but keeps pecking the metal pole and not understanding why he's not getting any suet - Dad Downy is a bit embarrassed I think. Only one thrasher baby survived and is being viciously defended by parents as he learns to forage, and two male red bellied woodpeckers got in a huge, rolling on the ground fight in the woods yesterday. Yikes. Great crested flycatcher knocked a blue jay out of the air when it got to close to the box. Sadly, my much loved Carolina wrens fledged too early and I doubt they will make it. They left the property as I have no underbrush here (yet) so can't monitor their progress. Had to stop mowing one area where robin babies are and the Mom hummingbirds are at the feeders more of late so juveniles can't be far behind. sowngrow - wrens here nested on my front porch. They tend to stay near humans as sort of a protection thing. Last year it was under my back porch which is very active, including my dogs being out there with me constantly and it did not seem to bother them at all. I have no idea where the phoebes nested. Built them two shelves but they went ignored so I need to relocate them. Love the phoebes! They feed in my yard daily, but no nesting. dodi34453 - love the blog. Thanks for showing us. :) ron45715 - WOW on the martins. How cool. Your air is going to be full soon - what a beautiful sight that will be. And the thrushes are singing.

Thanks! The Hooded Warbler male pulling on the cocoon happened just as I was getting up to shut down my camera and try somewhere else after an hour of waiting..typical! Two days ago when there was a break in the storms we drove up on Poppy Mnt at sunset and got a few pics from the car as we drove around 6-9-09, Poppy Mnt barn, adult male Barn Swallow, 6:15 p.m. Time for a stretch.. From 6-5-09, birds Then to the right.. From 6-5-09, birds ..flex those shoulders.. From 6-5-09, birds Much better! From 6-5-09, birds We drove to an access rd that overlooked a steep gully and saw several Yellow-billed Cuckoos flying around but they didn't come close enough for good photos. However, someone did 6-9-09, Poppy Mnt, male Red-eyed Vireo, 6:48 p.m. From 6-5-09, birds From 6-5-09, birds